Chapter 3

    "Come, shall we go and kill us venison?
    And yet it irks me, the poor dappled foals,-
    Being native burghers of this desert city,-
    Should, in their own confines, with forked heads
    Have their round haunches gored."
    As You Like It, II.i.21-25

Hurry Harry thought more of the beauties of Judith Hutter than of
those of the Glimmerglass and its accompanying scenery. As soon
as he had taken a sufficiently intimate survey of floating Tom's
implements, therefore, he summoned his companion to the canoe, that
they might go down the lake in quest of the family. Previously
to embarking, however, Hurry carefully examined the whole of the
northern end of the water with an indifferent ship's glass, that
formed a part of Hutter's effects. In this scrutiny, no part of
the shore was overlooked; the bays and points in particular being
subjected to a closer inquiry than the rest of the wooded boundary.

"'Tis as I thought," said Hurry, laying aside the glass, "the old
fellow is drifting about the south end this fine weather, and has
left the castle to defend itself. Well, now we know that he is
not up this-a-way, 'twill be but a small matter to paddle down and
hunt him up in his hiding-place."

"Does Master Hutter think it necessary to burrow on this lake?"
inquired Deerslayer, as he followed his companion into the canoe;
"to my eye it is such a solitude as one might open his whole soul
in, and fear no one to disarrange his thoughts or his worship."

"You forget your friends the Mingos, and all the French savages. Is
there a spot on 'arth, Deerslayer, to which them disquiet rogues
don't go? Where is the lake, or even the deer lick, that the
blackguards don't find out, and having found out, don't, sooner or
later, discolour its water with blood."

"I hear no good character of 'em, sartainly, friend Hurry, though
I've never been called on, yet, to meet them, or any other mortal,
on the warpath. I dare to say that such a lovely spot as this,
would not be likely to be overlooked by such plunderers, for, though
I've not been in the way of quarreling with them tribes myself,
the Delawares give me such an account of 'em that I've pretty much
set 'em down in my own mind, as thorough miscreants."

"You may do that with a safe conscience, or for that matter, any
other savage you may happen to meet."

Here Deerslayer protested, and as they went paddling down the lake,
a hot discussion was maintained concerning the respective merits
of the pale-faces and the red-skins. Hurry had all the prejudices
and antipathies of a white hunter, who generally regards the Indian
as a sort of natural competitor, and not unfrequently as a natural
enemy. As a matter of course, he was loud, clamorous, dogmatical and
not very argumentative. Deerslayer, on the other hand, manifested
a very different temper, proving by the moderation of his language,
the fairness of his views, and the simplicity of his distinctions,
that he possessed every disposition to hear reason, a strong, innate
desire to do justice, and an ingenuousness that was singularly
indisposed to have recourse to sophism to maintain an argument; or
to defend a prejudice. Still he was not altogether free from the
influence of the latter feeling. This tyrant of the human mind,
which ruses on it prey through a thousand avenues, almost as soon
as men begin to think and feel, and which seldom relinquishes its
iron sway until they cease to do either, had made some impression
on even the just propensities of this individual, who probably
offered in these particulars, a fair specimen of what absence from
bad example, the want of temptation to go wrong, and native good
feeling can render youth.

"You will allow, Deerslayer, that a Mingo is more than half devil,"
cried Hurry, following up the discussion with an animation that
touched closely on ferocity, "though you want to over-persuade me
that the Delaware tribe is pretty much made up of angels. Now, I
gainsay that proposal, consarning white men, even. All white men
are not faultless, and therefore all Indians can't be faultless.
And so your argument is out at the elbow in the start. But this is
what I call reason. Here's three colors on 'arth: white, black,
and red. White is the highest color, and therefore the best man;
black comes next, and is put to live in the neighborhood of the
white man, as tolerable, and fit to be made use of; and red comes
last, which shows that those that made 'em never expected an Indian
to be accounted as more than half human."

"God made all three alike, Hurry."

"Alike! Do you call a nigger like a white man, or me like an
Indian?"

"You go off at half-cock, and don't hear me out. God made us all,
white, black, and red; and, no doubt, had his own wise intentions
in coloring us differently. Still, he made us, in the main, much
the same in feelin's; though I'll not deny that he gave each race
its gifts. A white man's gifts are Christianized, while a red-skin's
are more for the wilderness. Thus, it would be a great offence
for a white man to scalp the dead; whereas it's a signal vartue
in an Indian. Then ag'in, a white man cannot amboosh women and
children in war, while a red-skin may. 'Tis cruel work, I'll
allow; but for them it's lawful work; while for us, it would be
grievous work."

"That depends on your inimy. As for scalping, or even skinning a
savage, I look upon them pretty much the same as cutting off the
ears of wolves for the bounty, or stripping a bear of its hide.
And then you're out significantly, as to taking the poll of a
red-skin in hand, seeing that the very colony has offered a bounty
for the job; all the same as it pays for wolves' ears and crows'
heads."

"Ay, and a bad business it is, Hurry. Even the Indians themselves
cry shame on it, seeing it's ag'in a white man's gifts. I do not
pretend that all that white men do, is properly Christianized, and
according to the lights given them, for then they would be what
they ought to be; which we know they are not; but I will maintain
that tradition, and use, and color, and laws, make such a difference in
races as to amount to gifts. I do not deny that there are tribes
among the Indians that are nat'rally pervarse and wicked, as
there are nations among the whites. Now, I account the Mingos as
belonging to the first, and the Frenchers, in the Canadas, to the
last. In a state of lawful warfare, such as we have lately got
into, it is a duty to keep down all compassionate feelin's, so far
as life goes, ag'in either; but when it comes to scalps, it's a
very different matter."

"Just hearken to reason, if you please, Deerslayer, and tell me if
the colony can make an onlawful law? Isn't an onlawful law more
ag'in natur' than scalpin' a savage? A law can no more be onlawful,
than truth can be a lie."

"That sounds reasonable; but it has a most onreasonable bearing,
Hurry. Laws don't all come from the same quarter. God has given
us his'n, and some come from the colony, and others come from the
King and Parliament. When the colony's laws, or even the King's
laws, run ag'in the laws of God, they get to be onlawful, and ought
not to be obeyed. I hold to a white man's respecting white laws,
so long as they do not cross the track of a law comin' from a higher
authority; and for a red man to obey his own red-skin usages, under
the same privilege. But, 't is useless talking, as each man will
think fir himself, and have his say agreeable to his thoughts. Let
us keep a good lookout for your friend Floating Tom, lest we pass
him, as he lies hidden under this bushy shore."

Deerslayer had not named the borders of the lake amiss. Along
their whole length, the smaller trees overhung the water, with their
branches often dipping in the transparent element The banks were
steep, even from the narrow strand; and, as vegetation invariably
struggles towards the light, the effect was precisely that at which
the lover of the picturesque would have aimed, had the ordering
of this glorious setting of forest been submitted to his control.
The points and bays, too, were sufficiently numerous to render the
outline broken and diversified. As the canoe kept close along the
western side of the lake, with a view, as Hurry had explained to
his companion, of reconnoitering for enemies, before he trusted
himself too openly in sight, the expectations of the two adventurers
were kept constantly on the stretch, as neither could foretell
what the next turning of a point might reveal. Their progress was
swift, the gigantic strength of Hurry enabling him to play with
the light bark as if it had been a feather, while the skill of his
companion almost equalized their usefulness, notwithstanding the
disparity in natural means.

Each time the canoe passed a point, Hurry turned a look behind
him, expecting to see the "ark" anchored, or beached in the bay.
He was fated to be disappointed, however; and they had got within
a mile of the southern end of the lake, or a distance of quite two
leagues from the "castle," which was now hidden from view by half
a dozen intervening projections of the land, when he suddenly ceased
paddling, as if uncertain in what direction next to steer.

"It is possible that the old chap has dropped into the river,"
said Hurry, after looking carefully along the whole of the eastern
shore, which was about a mile distant, and open to his scrutiny
for more than half its length; "for he has taken to trapping
considerable, of late, and, barring flood-wood, he might drop down
it a mile or so; though he would have a most scratching time in
getting back again!"

"Where is this outlet?" asked Deerslayer; "I see no opening in the
banks or the trees, that looks as if it would let a river like the
Susquehannah run through it."

"Ay, Deerslayer, rivers are like human mortals; having small
beginnings, and ending with broad shoulders and wide mouths. You
don't see the outlet, because it passes atween high, steep banks;
and the pines, and hemlocks and bass-woods hang over it, as a roof
hangs over a house. If old Tom is not in the 'Rat's Cove,' he
must have burrowed in the river; we'll look for him first in the
cove, and then we'll cross to the outlet."

As they proceeded, Hurry explained that there was a shallow bay,
formed by a long, low point, that had got the name of the "Rat's
Cove," from the circumstance of its being a favorite haunt of the
muskrat; and which offered so complete a cover for the "ark," that
its owner was fond of lying in it, whenever he found it convenient.

"As a man never knows who may be his visitors, in this part of the
country," continued Hurry, "it's a great advantage to get a good
look at 'em afore they come too near. Now it's war, such caution
is more than commonly useful, since a Canada man or a Mingo might
get into his hut afore he invited 'em. But Hutter is a first-rate
look-outer, and can pretty much scent danger, as a hound scents
the deer."

"I should think the castle so open, that it would be sartain to
draw inimies, if any happened to find the lake; a thing onlikely
enough, I will allow, as it's off the trail of the forts and
settlements."

"Why, Deerslayer, I've got to believe that a man meets with inimies
easier than he meets with fri'nds. It's skearful to think for
how many causes one gets to be your inimy, and for how few your
fri'nd. Some take up the hatchet because you don't think just as
they think; other some because you run ahead of 'em in the same
idees; and I once know'd a vagabond that quarrelled with a fri'nd
because he didn't think him handsome. Now, you're no monument
in the way of beauty, yourself, Deerslayer, and yet you wouldn't
be so onreasonable as to become my inimy for just saying so."

"I'm as the Lord made me; and I wish to be accounted no better, nor
any worse. Good looks I may not have; that is to say, to a degree
that the light-minded and vain crave; but I hope I'm not altogether
without some ricommend in the way of good conduct. There's few
nobler looking men to be seen than yourself, Hurry; and I know
that I am not to expect any to turn their eyes on me, when such a
one as you can be gazed on; but I do not know that a hunter is less
expart with the rifle, or less to be relied on for food, because
he doesn't wish to stop at every shining spring he may meet, to
study his own countenance in the water."

Here Hurry burst into a fit of loud laughter; for while he was too
reckless to care much about his own manifest physical superiority,
he was well aware of it, and, like most men who derive an advantage
from the accidents of birth or nature, he was apt to think complacently
on the subject, whenever it happened to cross his mind.

"No, no, Deerslayer, you're no beauty, as you will own yourself,
if you'll look over the side of the canoe," he cried; "Jude will
say that to your face, if you start her, for a parter tongue isn't
to be found in any gal's head, in or out of the settlements, if
you provoke her to use it. My advice to you is, never to aggravate
Judith; though you may tell anything to Hetty, and she'll take it
as meek as a lamb. No, Jude will be just as like as not to tell
you her opinion consarning your looks."

"And if she does, Hurry, she will tell me no more than you have
said already."

"You're not thick'ning up about a small remark, I hope, Deerslayer,
when no harm is meant. You are not a beauty, as you must know,
and why shouldn't fri'nds tell each other these little trifles?
If you was handsome, or ever like to be, I'd be one of the first
to tell you of it; and that ought to content you. Now, if Jude was
to tell me that I'm as ugly as a sinner, I'd take it as a sort
of obligation, and try not to believe her."

"It's easy for them that natur' has favored, to jest about such
matters, Hurry, though it is sometimes hard for others. I'll not
deny but I've had my cravings towards good looks; yes, I have;
but then I've always been able to get them down by considering
how many I've known with fair outsides, who have had nothing to
boast of inwardly. I'll not deny, Hurry, that I often wish I'd
been created more comely to the eye, and more like such a one as
yourself in them particulars; but then I get the feelin' under by
remembering how much better off I am, in a great many respects,
than some fellow-mortals. I might have been born lame, and onfit
even for a squirrel-hunt, or blind, which would have made me
a burden on myself as well as on my fri'nds; or without hearing,
which would have totally onqualified me for ever campaigning
or scouting; which I look forward to as part of a man's duty in
troublesome times. Yes, yes; it's not pleasant, I will allow, to
see them that's more comely, and more sought a'ter, and honored
than yourself; but it may all be borne, if a man looks the evil in
the face, and don't mistake his gifts and his obligations."

Hurry, in the main, was a good-hearted as well as good-natured
fellow; and the self-abasement of his companion completely got the
better of the passing feeling of personal vanity. He regretted
the allusion he had made to the other's appearance, and endeavored
to express as much, though it was done in the uncouth manner that
belonged to the habits and opinions of the frontier.

"I meant no harm, Deerslayer," he answered, in a deprecating
manner, "and hope you'll forget what I've said. If you're not
downright handsome, you've a sartain look that says, plainer than
any words, that all's right within. Then you set no value by looks,
and will the sooner forgive any little slight to your appearance.
I will not say that Jude will greatly admire you, for that might
raise hopes that would only breed disapp'intment; but there's Hetty,
now, would be just as likely to find satisfaction in looking at
you, as in looking at any other man. Then you're altogether too
grave and considerate-like, to care much about Judith; for, though
the gal is oncommon, she is so general in her admiration, that a
man need not be exalted because she happens to smile. I sometimes
think the hussy loves herself better than she does anything else
breathin'."

"If she did, Hurry, she'd do no more, I'm afeard, than most queens
on their thrones, and ladies in the towns," answered Deerslayer,
smiling, and turning back towards his companion with every trace
of feeling banished from his honest-looking and frank countenance.
"I never yet know'd even a Delaware of whom you might not say
that much. But here is the end of the long p'int you mentioned,
and the 'Rat's Cove' can't be far off."

This point, instead of thrusting itself forward, like all the
others, ran in a line with the main shore of the lake, which here
swept within it, in a deep and retired bay, circling round south
again, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and crossed the
valley, forming the southern termination of the water. In this
bay Hurry felt almost certain of finding the ark, since, anchored
behind the trees that covered the narrow strip of the point, it
might have lain concealed from prying eyes an entire summer. So
complete, indeed, was the cover, in this spot, that a boat hauled
close to the beach, within the point, and near the bottom of the
bay, could by any possibility be seen from only one direction; and
that was from a densely wooded shore within the sweep of the water,
where strangers would be little apt to go.

"We shall soon see the ark," said Hurry, as the canoe glided round
the extremity of the point, where the water was so deep as actually
to appear black; "he loves to burrow up among the rushes, and we
shall be in his nest in five minutes, although the old fellow may
be off among the traps himself."

March proved a false prophet. The canoe completely doubled the
point, so as to enable the two travellers to command a view of
the whole cove or bay, for it was more properly the last, and no
object, but those that nature had placed there, became visible.
The placid water swept round in a graceful curve, the rushes bent
gently towards its surface, and the trees overhung it as usual;
but all lay in the soothing and sublime solitude of a wilderness.
The scene was such as a poet or an artist would have delighted in,
but it had no charm for Hurry Harry, who was burning with impatience
to get a sight of his light-minded beauty.

The motion of the canoe had been attended with little or no noise,
the frontiermen habitually getting accustomed to caution in most
of their movements, and it now lay on the glassy water appearing
to float in air, partaking of the breathing stillness that seemed
to pervade the entire scene. At this instant a dry stick was heard
cracking on the narrow strip of land that concealed the bay from
the open lake. Both the adventurers started, and each extended a
hand towards his rifle, the weapon never being out of reach of the
arm.

"'Twas too heavy for any light creatur'," whispered Hurry, "and it
sounded like the tread of a man!"

"Not so- not so," returned Deerslayer; "'t was, as you say, too
heavy for one, but it was too light for the other. Put your paddle
in the water, and send the canoe in, to that log; I'll land and
cut off the creatur's retreat up the p'int, be it a Mingo, or be
it a muskrat."

As Hurry complied, Deerslayer was soon on the shore, advancing into
the thicket with a moccasined foot, and a caution that prevented
the least noise. In a minute he was in the centre of the narrow
strip of land, and moving slowly down towards its end, the bushes
rendering extreme watchfulness necessary. Just as be reached the
centre of the thicket the dried twigs cracked again, and the noise
was repeated at short intervals, as if some creature having life
walked slowly towards the point. Hurry heard these sounds also,
and pushing the canoe off into the bay, he seized his rifle to
watch the result. A breathless minute succeeded, after which a
noble buck walked out of the thicket, proceeded with a stately step
to the sandy extremity of the point, and began to slake his thirst
from the water of the lake. Hurry hesitated an instant; then raising
his rifle hastily to his shoulder, he took sight and fired. The
effect of this sudden interruption of the solemn stillness of such
a scene was not its least striking peculiarity. The report of the
weapon had the usual sharp, short sound of the rifle: but when a
few moments of silence had succeeded the sudden crack, during which
the noise was floating in air across the water, it reached the
rocks of the opposite mountain, where the vibrations accumulated,
and were rolled from cavity to cavity for miles along the hills,
seeming to awaken the sleeping thunders of the woods. The buck
merely shook his head at the report of the rifle and the whistling
of the bullet, for never before had he come in contact with man;
but the echoes of the hills awakened his distrust, and leaping
forward, with his four legs drawn under his body, he fell at once
into deep water, and began to swim towards the foot of the lake.
Hurry shouted and dashed forward in chase, and for one or two
minutes the water foamed around the pursuer and the pursued. The
former was dashing past the point, when Deerslayer appeared on the
sand and signed to him to return.

"'Twas inconsiderate to pull a trigger, afore we had reconn'itred
the shore, and made sartain that no inimies harbored near it,"
said the latter, as his companion slowly and reluctantly complied.
"This much I have l'arned from the Delawares, in the way of schooling
and traditions, even though I've never yet been on a war-path. And,
moreover, venison can hardly be called in season now, and we do
not want for food. They call me Deerslayer, I'll own, and perhaps
I desarve the name, in the way of understanding the creatur's
habits, as well as for some sartainty in the aim, but they can't
accuse me of killing an animal when there is no occasion for the meat,
or the skin. I may be a slayer, it's true, but I'm no slaughterer."

"'Twas an awful mistake to miss that buck!" exclaimed Hurry, doffing
his cap and running his fingers through his handsome but matted
curls, as if he would loosen his tangled ideas by the process.
"I've not done so onhandy a thing since I was fifteen."

"Never lament it, as the creatur's death could have done neither
of us any good, and might have done us harm. Them echoes are more
awful in my ears, than your mistake, Hurry, for they sound like the
voice of natur' calling out ag'in a wasteful and onthinking action."

"You'll hear plenty of such calls, if you tarry long in this quarter
of the world, lad," returned the other laughing. "The echoes repeat
pretty much all that is said or done on the Glimmerglass, in this
calm summer weather. If a paddle falls you hear of it sometimes,
ag'in and ag'in, as if the hills were mocking your clumsiness, and
a laugh, or a whistle, comes out of them pines, when they're in
the humour to speak, in a way to make you believe they can r'ally
convarse."

"So much the more reason for being prudent and silent. I do not
think the inimy can have found their way into these hills yet, for
I don't know what they are to gain by it, but all the Delawares
tell me that, as courage is a warrior's first vartue, so is prudence
his second. One such call from the mountains, is enough to let a
whole tribe into the secret of our arrival."

"If it does no other good, it will warn old Tom to put the pot
over, and let him know visiters are at hand. Come, lad; get into
the canoe, and we will hunt the ark up, while there is yet day."

Deerslayer complied, and the canoe left the spot. Its head was
turned diagonally across the lake, pointing towards the south-eastern
curvature of the sheet. In that direction, the distance to the
shore, or to the termination of the lake, on the course the two
were now steering, was not quite a mile, and, their progress being
always swift, it was fast lessening under the skilful, but easy
sweeps of the paddles. When about half way across, a slight noise
drew the eyes of the men towards the nearest land, and they saw
that the buck was just emerging from the lake and wading towards
the beach. In a minute, the noble animal shook the water from
his flanks, gazed up ward at the covering of trees, and, bounding
against the bank, plunged into the forest.

"That creatur' goes off with gratitude in his heart," said Deerslayer,
"for natur' tells him he has escaped a great danger. You ought to
have some of the same feelin's, Hurry, to think your eye wasn't
true, or that your hand was onsteady, when no good could come of
a shot that was intended onmeaningly rather than in reason."

"I deny the eye and the hand," cried March with some heat. "You've
got a little character, down among the Delawares, there, for quickness
and sartainty, at a deer, but I should like to see you behind one
of them pines, and a full painted Mingo behind another, each with
a cock'd rifle and a striving for the chance! Them's the situations,
Nathaniel, to try the sight and the hand, for they begin with trying
the narves. I never look upon killing a creatur' as an explite;
but killing a savage is. The time will come to try your hand, now
we've got to blows ag'in, and we shall soon know what a ven'son
reputation can do in the field. I deny that either hand or eye
was onsteady; it was all a miscalculation of the buck, which stood
still when he ought to have kept in motion, and so I shot ahead of
him."

"Have it your own way, Hurry; all I contend for is, that it's
lucky. I dare say I shall not pull upon a human mortal as steadily
or with as light a heart, as I pull upon a deer."

"Who's talking of mortals, or of human beings at all, Deerslayer?
I put the matter to you on the supposition of an Injin. I dare say
any man would have his feelin's when it got to be life or death,
ag'in another human mortal; but there would be no such scruples in
regard to an Injin; nothing but the chance of his hitting you, or
the chance of your hitting him."

"I look upon the redmen to be quite as human as we are ourselves,
Hurry. They have their gifts, and their religion, it's true;
but that makes no difference in the end, when each will be judged
according to his deeds, and not according to his skin."

"That's downright missionary, and will find little favor up in
this part of the country, where the Moravians don't congregate.
Now, skin makes the man. This is reason; else how are people to
judge of each other. The skin is put on, over all, in order when
a creatur', or a mortal, is fairly seen, you may know at once what
to make of him. You know a bear from a hog, by his skin, and a
gray squirrel from a black."

"True, Hurry," said the other looking back and smiling, "nevertheless,
they are both squirrels."

"Who denies it? But you'll not say that a red man and a white
man are both Injins?"

"But I do say they are both men. Men of different races and colors,
and having different gifts and traditions, but, in the main, with
the same natur'. Both have souls; and both will be held accountable
for their deeds in this life."

Hurry was one of those theorists who believed in the inferiority of
all the human race who were not white. His notions on the subject
were not very clear, nor were his definitions at all well settled;
but his opinions were none the less dogmatical or fierce. His
conscience accused him of sundry lawless acts against the Indians,
and he had found it an exceedingly easy mode of quieting it,
by putting the whole family of redmen, incontinently, without the
category of human rights. Nothing angered him sooner than to deny
his proposition, more especially if the denial were accompanied
by a show of plausible argument; and he did not listen to his
companion's remarks with much composure of either manner or feeling.

"You're a boy, Deerslayer, misled and misconsaited by Delaware arts,
and missionary ignorance," he exclaimed, with his usual indifference
to the forms of speech, when excited. "You may account yourself
as a red-skin's brother, but I hold'em all to be animals; with
nothing human about 'em but cunning. That they have, I'll allow;
but so has a fox, or even a bear. I'm older than you, and have
lived longer in the woods- or, for that matter, have lived always
there, and am not to be told what an Injin is or what he is not.
If you wish to be considered a savage, you've only to say so, and
I'll name you as such to Judith and the old man, and then we'll
see how you'll like your welcome."

Here Hurry's imagination did his temper some service, since, by
conjuring up the reception his semi-aquatic acquaintance would be
likely to bestow on one thus introduced, he burst into a hearty fit
of laughter. Deerslayer too well knew the uselessness of attempting
to convince such a being of anything against his prejudices, to
feel a desire to undertake the task; and he was not sorry that the
approach of the canoe to the southeastern curve of the lake gave
a new direction to his ideas. They were now, indeed, quite near
the place that March had pointed out for the position of the outlet,
and both began to look for it with, a curiosity that was increased
by the expectation of the ark.

It may strike the reader as a little singular, that the place where
a stream of any size passed through banks that had an elevation of
some twenty feet, should be a matter of doubt with men who could
not now have been more than two hundred yards distant from the
precise spot. It will be recollected, however, that the trees and
bushes here, as elsewhere, fairly overhung the water, making such
a fringe to the lake, as to conceal any little variations from its
general outline.

"I've not been down at this end of the lake these two summers,"
said Hurry, standing up in the canoe, the better to look about him.
"Ay, there's the rock, showing its chin above the water, and I
know that the river begins in its neighborhood."

The men now plied the paddles again, and they were presently within
a few yards of the rock, floating towards it, though their efforts
were suspended. This rock was not large, being merely some five
or six feet high, only half of which elevation rose above the lake.
The incessant washing of the water for centuries had so rounded
its summit, that it resembled a large beehive in shape, its form
being more than usually regular and even. Hurry remarked, as they
floated slowly past, that this rock was well known to all the Indians
in that part of the country, and that they were in the practice of
using it as a mark to designate the place of meeting, when separated
by their hunts and marches.

"And here is the river, Deerslayer," he continued, "though so shut
in by trees and bushes as to look more like an and-bush, than the
outlet of such a sheet as the Glimmerglass."

Hurry had not badly described the place, which did truly seem to be
a stream lying in ambush. The high banks might have been a hundred
feet asunder; but, on the western side, a small bit of low land
extended so far forward as to diminish the breadth of the stream
to half that width.

As the bushes hung in the water beneath, and pines that had the
stature of church-steeples rose in tall columns above, all inclining
towards the light, until their branches intermingled, the eye, at
a little distance, could not easily detect any opening in the shore,
to mark the egress of the water. In the forest above, no traces
of this outlet were to be seen from the lake, the whole presenting
the same connected and seemingly interminable carpet of leaves.
As the canoe slowly advanced, sucked in by the current, it entered
beneath an arch of trees, through which the light from the heavens
struggled by casual openings, faintly relieving the gloom beneath.

"This is a nat'ral and-bush," half whispered Hurry, as if he felt
that the place was devoted to secrecy and watchfulness; "depend on
it, old Tom has burrowed with the ark somewhere in this quarter.
We will drop down with the current a short distance, and ferret
him out."

"This seems no place for a vessel of any size," returned the other;
"it appears to me that we shall have hardly room enough for the
canoe."

Hurry laughed at the suggestion, and, as it soon appeared, with
reason; for the fringe of bushes immediately on the shore of the
lake was no sooner passed, than the adventurers found themselves
in a narrow stream, of a sufficient depth of limpid water, with a
strong current, and a canopy of leaves upheld by arches composed
of the limbs of hoary trees. Bushes lined the shores, as usual,
but they left sufficient space between them to admit the passage
of anything that did not exceed twenty feet in width, and to allow
of a perspective ahead of eight or ten times that distance.

Neither of our two adventurers used his paddle, except to keep
the light bark in the centre of the current, but both watched each
turning of the stream, of which there were two or three within
the first hundred yards, with jealous vigilance. Turn after turn,
however, was passed, and the canoe had dropped down with the current
some little distance, when Hurry caught a bush, and arrested its
movement so suddenly and silently as to denote some unusual motive
for the act. Deerslayer laid his hand on the stock of his rifle
as soon as he noted this proceeding, but it was quite as much with
a hunter's habit as from any feeling of alarm.

"There the old fellow is!" whispered Hurry, pointing with a finger,
and laughing heartily, though he carefully avoided making a noise,
"ratting it away, just as I supposed; up to his knees in the mud
and water, looking to the traps and the bait. But for the life
of me I can see nothing of the ark; though I'll bet every skin
I take this season, Jude isn't trusting her pretty little feet in
the neighborhood of that black mud. The gal's more likely to be
braiding her hair by the side of some spring, where she can see
her own good looks, and collect scornful feelings ag'in us men."

"You over-judge young women- yes, you do, Hurry- who as often
bethink them of their failings as they do of their perfections. I
dare to say this Judith, now, is no such admirer of herself, and
no such scorner of our sex as you seem to think; and that she
is quite as likely to be sarving her father in the house, wherever
that may be, as he is to be sarving her among the traps."

"It's a pleasure to hear truth from a man's tongue, if it be only
once in a girl's life," cried a pleasant, rich, and yet soft female
voice, so near the canoe as to make both the listeners start. "As
for you, Master Hurry, fair words are so apt to choke you, that I
no longer expect to hear them from your mouth; the last you uttered
sticking in your throat, and coming near to death. But I'm glad
to see you keep better society than formerly, and that they who
know how to esteem and treat women are not ashamed to journey in
your company."

As this was said, a singularly handsome and youthful female
face was thrust through an opening in the leaves, within reach of
Deerslayer's paddle. Its owner smiled graciously on the young man;
and the frown that she cast on Hurry, though simulated and pettish,
had the effect to render her beauty more striking, by exhibiting the
play of an expressive but capricious countenance; one that seemed
to change from the soft to the severe, the mirthful to the reproving,
with facility and indifference.

A second look explained the nature of the surprise. Unwittingly,
the men had dropped alongside of the ark, which had been purposely
concealed in bushes cut and arranged for the purpose; and Judith
Hutter had merely pushed aside the leaves that lay before a window,
in order to show her face, and speak to them.